The original fairy tale of Cinderella is undeniably one of
the most beloved (and hated) fairy-tales of all time. Much to the relief of all
who have continuously defended both Disney’s 1950 film and the story on which
it is based, this version attempts to redeem the more controversial aspects of
both, although it does wield mixed results. But it does stick to the script
enough to retain that magical feeling that always comes with a Disney classic,
thanks to its fantastic costume and set design.
Visually, this is a beautiful film. As I said before, every
costume looks amazing down to the last thread of each dress and the sets are
equally as fantastic. That aforementioned ‘magical’ feeling created by the
production design is also added to by a sweeping score and plenty of wide shots
to show off the visual wonder that they have created. In addition to this,
whilst Lily James’ Cinderella is hardly Katniss Everdeen (in fact, she’s marginally
worse than the original animated Cinderella), some aspects of the original
story are redeemed. For example, the Prince is actually given a personality
(and a name) and even Lady Tremaine is given more depth, in a fresh
interpretation not really done before. I also love the way that they really build
up the darker aspects of the original story through the inclusion of
Cinderella’s full backstory. You see the happiness of her childhood and then
you watch as her life slowly turns darker and darker under the influence of
Cate Blanchett’s Evil Stepmother. This then creates strong emotional ties with
the film’s protagonist that were simply not there in the original version- you
really feel Cinderella’s pain and as a result you root for her even more
through all her struggles, which is a nice touch to a story that has been done
to death. On the other hand, I do wish that some of these elements had been developed more- it feels like they are trying to add new parts to the story to make it fresh, but in the end this is actually very detrimental to the film as a whole. They try to build on the life of the prince, they try to flesh out the stepmother, they try to add in Cinderella’s childhood, they emphasize the whole ‘kindness’ moral, whilst keeping the original story 100% intact. By trying to cram in all of this story at once, everything feels very underdone, which is a shame considering how interesting and creative some of the ideas within the film are.
